ELYRIA — A 24-year-old man riding a bike was taken to the hospital with a broken leg after he was hit by a pickup truck this morning.

The accident happened at 5:45 a.m. at the intersection of Foster and Lake avenues in Elyria, according to Fire Capt. Robert Donofrio.

Engine 3 responded to 385 Foster and found the man lying on the ground with his pantleg in the sprockets of the bike with “an obvious left femur fracture,” Donofrio said.

The man was taken to EMH Regional Medical Center by LifeCare, Donofrio said. Neither his identity nor his condition were immediately known.

Donofrio did not have any information on the driver of the pickup, but said that individual wasn’t hurt.

Elyria police also responded.

ELYRIA TWP. — Investigators believe a severed human foot and part of a leg found Monday night by four teenagers near abandoned train tracks that cross state Route 57 may have belonged to a white female.

Lorain County sheriff’s Capt. John Reiber said a  preliminary examination by county Coroner Paul Matus determined the foot belonged to a woman in between 47 and 60 years of age.

Reiber said Matus determined that the foot, which was wearing a dark-colored sock, was recently severed by traumatic impact.

Brandan Hartman, 18, said he and three friends were walking to another friends house and cut through a wooded area when they first saw the foot around 5:30 p.m. Monday. They initially believed it was a fake foot.

But when they returned around 7:45 p.m., Hartman said he and his friends checked on the foot again, going so far as to poke it with sticks.

That convinced them the foot was real and they hurried to Hartman’s house, where his mother called police.

Reiber said the investigation is ongoing and anyone with information is being asked to call deputies at (440) 329-3710.

For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Chronicle.

EARLIER STORY

ELYRIA TWP. — Four teenagers walking near the abandoned train tracks near state Route 57 found a human foot still attached to the lower part of a leg Monday night.

The find was reported to sheriff’s deputies a little after 8 p.m.

Lorain County Sheriff’s Capt. John Reiber said deputies have searched the area and found no other body parts.

A photo of the remains obtained by The Chronicle shows the still-bloody foot against a piece of concrete.

The foot, which belonged to a white person, was wearing a dark-colored sock and has been turned over to county Coroner Paul Matus to examine.

Reiber said the foot doesn’t appear to have been there for very long.

“It’s very fresh,” he said.

Reiber said he has no idea how the foot got there, but deputies have launched an investigation and begun scouring missing persons reports in the area for information. So far, nothing has turned up, he said.

Read Wednesday’s Chronicle for more on this story.

Lorain County’s 11.5 percent jobless rate for February is the highest since the recession began in December 2007.

The rate, which is not seasonally adjusted, topped January’s 11 percent unemployment.

Factors for the county’s increase over January include a 1 percent rise in claims filed for unemployment benefits, and more people seeking work but not finding it, according to Keith Ewald, chief of the Bureau of Market Labor Market for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

“There’s a larger pool of people seeking a limited number of jobs,’’ Ewald said. “Most are not finding any work. What growth there is in the job market isn’t enough for the number of job seekers coming in.”

In Elyria, the rate rose to 11.5 percent in February from 11.1 percent in January.

In Lorain, unemployment rose from 12.3 percent in January to 12.8 percent in February.

The statewide unemployment rate, which was recorded at 10.9 percent for February, seasonally adjusted. The unadjusted rate was 11.8 percent. Statewide, the number of unemployed workers has increased by 99,000 in the past 12 months, according to the agency.

Jobless claims came from all sectors, according to Ewald.

“They didn’t seem to point to any one industry,’’ he said. “It was pretty diverse and widespread.”

The area’s bleak employment picture reflects in part “the pull of the recession going on as long as it has,” Ewald said.

Overall, Lorain County ranked 65th among Ohio’s 88 counties, where a high of 19.1 percent unemployment rate was recorded in Ottawa County to a low of 8.2 percent in Delaware County.

Neighboring counties continued to be among the best and worst for unemployment.

Medina County’s 10 percent jobless rate put it among only nine Ohio counties with unemployment at or below 10 percent. Huron County’s 18.1 percent gave it the distinction of being among only six counties with jobless rates exceeding 18 percent.

While Lorain County experienced slightly higher unemployment in February than the previous month, 56 of Ohio’s 88 counties saw declines, which was a noticeable change from January, when unemployment rose in all but one of Ohio’s 88 counties. Part of that across-the-board  increase was blamed on seasonal layoffs following the holidays and a near-total idling of construction work.

The nation as a whole can’t expect its economic health to perk up soon, Ewald said.

“Forecasts from most economists suggest the jobless rate will hold relatively high and be slow to come down,’’ he said. “That’s especially true of Ohio, which has had such heavy reliance on the auto industry and manufacturing — and taken a bigger share of hits from the recession.”

While there’s a potential for some upturnsduring the spring and summer months, “it’s fair to say most economists expect it to be at least several years before we really see significant change,” Ewald said.

From staff and wire reports

After a few weeks that felt like spring, snow has returned to Ohio, icing up roads.

Snow fell overnight throughout the state, leaving as much as 3 inches on the ground. Police reported dozens of accidents, and numerous school districts statewide delayed their Friday start times by one or two hours.

One such accident in Lorain County sounded like it was going to be a lot worse than it apparently was. Elyria police and the State Highway Patrol responded a little after 6 a.m. to a report of a car that had gone off Interstate 90 and plunged down an embankment near the Black River bridge.

Squads that responded via I-90 reported they couldn’t reach the car, which was all the way down the at the bottom of the hill. They responded via Ford Road, reporting that the car was off of Ford Road under the I-90 bridge.

After extricating one victim from the car, however, initial reports were that injuries were minor. The extent of injuries could not immediately be confirmed.

Crews also responded to a handful of accidents overnight.

While drivers had to contend with wintry conditions for their morning commute, that wasn’t likely for the evening rush hour. Forecasters expected temperatures to warm up into the 40s Friday afternoon.